Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Cancer

Dianne and I attended a consultation with the surgeon today, with a view towards what is going to happen over the next little while. The Dr is thinking at this point that it is an aggressive form of cancer, based on the size of the tumor(s) today as compared to when the original ultrasound was done.

There are several things that need to be done now. Dianne needs to go for blood work (done today), and she also needs to go for a CT Scan, bone scan and an ultrasound (scheduled for this coming Friday). These tests are to determine if the cancer has spread to the internal organs. If the ultrasound cannot confirm if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes or not, then she will also have to go for a centenal node biopsy.

She will also be meeting with a Dr at the Cross Cancer Institute in the next week or so. This is to get their opinion on the use of chemotherapy. If the Drs think that chemo would help shrink the tumor before they operate, then we are looking at about 6 months before surgery. If the Drs don’t feel that chemo would be of benefit, we would be looking at surgery within the next 4 weeks. They are unsure as of right now whether to do a partial removal of the breast or a complete removal. It is going to depend on some of the test results.

I will keep you updated as we learn more about this.

Thanks for all your support…it is much appreciated by my wife, by myself and by my family.